Man discovers father killed in Monte Vista home

SAN ANTONIO — A man who went to check on his father Wednesday afternoon discovered the 77-year-old man had been slain in the kitchen of his Monte Vista home.

San Antonio police said it had been a couple of days since the man had heard from his father, Wayne Bowden, so he decided to stop by on Christmas. About 2:30 p.m., he unlocked the front door of the home in the 100 block of Queens Crescent and found Bowden dead in the kitchen, a detective who was at Bowden's home said.

“There was obvious blunt trauma to the head, and we did find forced entry,” said the detective, who didn't want to be named because it wasn't his case. “There was a side window that had been broken.”

It was unclear whether anything had been taken from the house and exactly when the crime occurred.

Bowden had apparently been “deceased for a few days,” according to Officer Roger Zuniga, a SAPD spokesman.

He declined to elaborate on Bowden's injuries.

Police had no suspects or motives several hours after Bowden's body was found, and officials said while there had been some holiday-related break-ins in the area, they didn't seem to be related to Bowden's death on Queens Crescent.

The street was quiet and dark Wednesday night, save for some Christmas lights in yards and the fluorescent lights of the massive SAPD Crime Scene Investigation truck, which police were using to collect evidence from the single-story home. A neighbor said Bowden, who lived alone, was a quiet man who retired from Kelly AFB in the 1990s. She said Bowden was close to his son — his only child — whom she described as being very distraught after finding his father dead.

“He comes and visits him; the son had been calling him because it was Christmas,” she said. “He was very good to me. We always looked out for each other.”

Although she lives next to the home, she said she didn't hear anything like a break-in, possibly because of thick, double-pane windows, and last saw Bowden several days ago.